Page 14 of Sin: The Mate Games (Apocalypse #1)

Chapter

Fourteen

GRIM

“ T here we are, my beauties. A bit of water, and you’ll be right as rain,” I murmured as I misted liquid sunshine onto the last of my sadly neglected plants. “Hel and her nefarious plans nearly killed you all.”

Anger burned through my veins at yet another reminder of what that bitch had stolen from me. My rooftop garden, and more specifically the blooms in this greenhouse, were one of the few things I’d ever truly cared about. Here, I didn’t have to be a threat to living things. Quite the opposite. So long as I kept my gloves on, I could experience what it was to help something thrive. Watching these plants grow from seedlings, their stalks unfurling with each passing day, bright blooms opening under my care, gave me the one thing I never had in any other facet of my existence.

Hope.

Satisfied with my night’s work, I’d just set my mister back in its rack when I heard the whisper of the balcony door sliding open.

If Malice thought he was going to come in here and send disease through my plants like he had the last time he was in my penthouse, he was about to learn a very painful lesson. I’d toss him over the side of the building with nary a single thread of remorse. Sure enough, the greenhouse door opened, letting in a burst of winter air. Readying myself for conflict, I tensed, but every ounce of defensive energy vanished at the very soft, very feminine gasp that filled the air.

Merri.

She couldn’t be here.

This floor, these flowers, were my sanctuary. I didn’t want her to sully any of it with her presence.

Filthy liar.

I ignored the voice crooning in my ear, choosing instead to wrap myself in shadow and spy on my own would-be voyeur. What’s good for the goose...

“Oh my God, Daddy has a green thumb. Who would’ve thought?” she murmured, moving deeper into the small space.

Her fingers trailed across leaves I’d just taken care to wipe down, and I hated the rush of jealousy I felt as the plants were gifted her touch.

She was a vision in moonlight, the silvery glow lending her an ethereal quality that was as sensual as it was innocent. But I was coming to learn that dichotomy was inherently Merri. She was both temptress and ingenue. A walking contradiction that left me aching for reasons I couldn’t begin to explain. I’d felt the stirrings of lust few times in my long years, but nothing compared with my reaction to this little succubus.

Or, as I’d started silently referring to her, this little wildflower.

She was beauty amidst chaos. Untamed. Stubborn. Resilient.

My hands balled into fists at my sides as I immediately scolded myself for thinking of her in such a way.

She was a job. Nothing more.

My ward.

My responsibility.

Quite literally untouchable and forbidden. At least to me. For my brothers, she was a bloom made for plucking, but all she would know at my hand was rot.

The closer she got, the darker I made my shadows.

Before I could stop her, Merri reached for my rare orchid, the prize of my collection. She couldn’t touch it. They were notoriously finicky and temperamental.

“Don’t touch it!” I blurted, jumping out of the shadows and startling Merri so badly that she fell into the orchid and sent it toppling over. “No! Bloody hell, look what you’ve done.”

I knelt down and carefully extracted the plant from the shards of broken pottery, heaving a sigh of relief when I realized none of the stem had broken. “This is one of the most rare varieties of orchid on the planet. It blooms one night per year if we’re lucky. You could’ve killed it.”

“I-I’m sorry,” she stammered, eyes wide, one hand covering her lips.

I glared at her. “You should be. What are you even doing out here? I recall expressly forbidding you from wandering about my floor.”

She was coming back to herself the longer I spoke, her fear and remorse swiftly replaced by annoyance. “Expressly forbidding? Okay, Mr. Rochester,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Anyone ever tell you you’re a bit of a drama queen?”

I gritted my teeth. “If they have, they certainly didn’t live to tell the tale.”

Without allowing myself so much as a glance at her beauty, I snagged an empty pot and rehomed the orchid as delicately as possible.

A gentle pressure alighted on my forearm, stopping me in my tracks and sending pure panic through my bloodstream. She was touching me. By the grace of the fabric between us, Merri was still breathing, but if there’d been so much as a sliver of my skin showing, she would be nothing more than a corpse.

Yanking my arm from her, I narrowed my eyes, my voice barely more than a snarl, “It would behoove you to stop touching things that do not belong to you.”

“Behoove? Lordy, I’m going to need to walk around with a notebook so I can keep track of all these antiquated phrases of yours. What’s next? Constult?”

I frowned. “Why would I use that word? We are not speaking in pure frivolity.”

“Aren’t we?”

An irritated huff escaped me as I pushed past her. “Do not touch me or my plants again.”

She held her hands up in surrender.

“I solemnly vow to never accidentally molest your plants again, okay? God, you really are taking the grump thing to the next level.”

All I could do was grumble. I had no interest in gaining her affection or attentions, not when a single touch would end her life. What was the point in getting close to her if I’d only lose her? She was for Sin and Chaos. Not me.

“Come. Let’s get you back to where you belong.”

“So you’re taking me to Iniquity ?”

The absolute cheek of this girl. Though she was raised by Lilith, so could I really expect anything else?

“You know that’s not an option.”

She crossed her arms and made a soft hum in her throat.

“So help me, Merri, if you force my hand right now, you will not enjoy the outcome.”

“Your hand, huh? What are you going to do with it? Spank me? Because I should probably warn you, I’m sorta into that.”

My teeth ground together as I worked through my frustration. I couldn’t get the picture out of my mind. The things I’d seen from her video feed alone were far too tempting.

I grabbed her bicep. Even through my leather glove, the contact sent tingles up my forearm.

“What happened to not touching things that don’t belong to you?” she mocked, her steps awkward as I towed her behind me.

“Who said you don’t belong to me?”

She scoffed. “Everything about you.”

“Then you must not be paying very close attention,” I growled, tugging on her arm until she was standing directly in front of me. I leaned down until our noses were less than an inch apart. Risky? Yes. But she was spirited in a way that made me forget myself. “You became mine the second Lilith forced you into my custody.” I turned her around and gave her bottom a slap. “Go.”

Her shoulders stiffened momentarily before she stepped forward, heading for the elevator. There was no way I could be trapped in a steel box with her for any length of time right now. I’d give in and show her who was in charge, then when the doors opened, have to explain to the boys why I had her corpse in my arms.

“Stairs. Right there,” I said, gesturing to the staircase on the right.

Her brows lifted at the demand, but shockingly, she didn’t fight me. “You first,” she said with a wide sweep of her arm. “I wouldn’t want to accidentally stop short and have you run into me or something.”

It was a special kind of torture, having her behind me, her gaze pinning my back with every step as we descended into the main floor. The murmur of masculine voices and music that sounded more like cats in heat than the kind of melodies I preferred grew louder with every passing moment.

“Someone is having a party,” Merri said as she took up her place at my side in the hall.

“It would seem Sin found his record collection.”

She glanced up at my tall frame with an arched brow. “Did you hide it from him?”

“I did.”

“That wasn’t very nice.”

“As a rule, neither am I.”

“Was that supposed to be a surprise or something? You’re certainly not telling me anything I haven’t already figured out, Grim .” Then, lowering her voice as if sharing a secret, she added, “The name sort of gives it away, you know.”

“It’s Grimsby,” I corrected on principle.

The music continued, Jimi Hendrix wailing on guitar as I heard Sin call out, “Fuck yeah, man. That’s the reason he’s immortal right there. Do you hear that?”

I snorted. Immortal? I’d been there when he died. No human was immortal. I was proof positive.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Grimsby . Would you like me to stand on ceremony every time I see you, my lord Grumpypants? I can start practicing my curtsy now.”

“You do that,” I muttered, trying my best to ignore her as I stalked into the salon. It took every ounce of control I had not to let my face showcase the disgust I’d felt at what Sin had reduced the once pristine and peaceful room to. The bar cart had been moved, my expensive collection of liquor pilfered and absolutely wasted on his rubbish bin of a palate.

“What do you wankers think you’re doing?” I shouted, rousing Sin from his blissed-out stupor, where he lay sprawled on the floor amongst piles of vinyl records.

Chaos was sat on the sofa, arms spread across the back, but the moment my booming voice rattled the walls, he flinched. The record stopped playing with an ugly scratching sound a second before glass shattered upstairs.

Sin stumbled to the record player, face stricken. “Come on, man, that’s vintage. You fucking scratched it.”

I leveled an accusing glare at Chaos. “I thought you had a handle on your flares. That’s why you’ve been leaving us in the first place.”

“That wasn’t me,” Chaos said, expression tense as his focus lifted to the ceiling, as though he could somehow see beyond it. He launched to his feet, muscles tensed and eyes wide as he homed in on whatever it was he sensed. A low snarl built in his chest and he shot his gaze to Merri. “Get behind me.”

True to her brat nature, the succubus crossed her arms under her ample chest, then lifted her chin defiantly. “I’m really fucking sick of you guys thinking you can boss me around. You could try asking once in a while. I’m not just some spineless plaything for you to contr?—”

Malice skidded into the room, eyes flashing with lavender fire, laptop open in his hands. “There’s been a breach.”